New Labour Cracking the Whip Over Extreme Porn
by Louisefeminista
The Orwellian Ministry of Justice is cracking the whip, so to speak, regarding the banning of extreme pornography. In the new Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill there is a section about extreme porn that reads: "It is an offence for a person to be in possession of an extreme pornographic image".
The legislation has come about due to the lobbying by Jane Longhurst's mother. Jane Longhurst was murdered by Graham Coutts. The prosecution argued that violent porn such as S&M played a part in the death of Jane Longhurst. The argument about the causal link between pornography and violence is once again raised without any substantial evidence ("it was the porn that made me do it, guv…").
It smacks of the usual moral panics, whether it is over the lyrics of Marilyn Manson, violent video games/films and now the turn of violent porn. As Walter Kendrick argues in the fascinating book, The Secret Museum: "I foresee no final battle in the porn wars, only continuing repetition, with small variations, of patterns that were laid down two and half centuries ago".
An extreme image, according to the Bill, includes an act that "threatens or appears to threaten a person's life, an act that results or appears to result in actual injury, an act that involves sexual interference" and so on.
But classified films are exempt and if you want to watch Hostel Part II or Saw, for example, at the cinema or video or DVD, that is OK. But if you download some of the scenes on your computer you are deemed to be in "possession of an extreme pornographic image" (as opposed to violating copyright laws).
So, New Labour is policing and criminalising sexual arousal. Are we going to be given some order from the Ministry of Justice of what is deemed acceptable to look at? Are we to see more Operation Spanner cases? The authoritarianism of this Government knows no limits. Our sexual fantasies are being expunged with a dose of bleach so they will be utterly sanitised, vanilla and respectable. Images deemed trangressive and violent will get you a potential jail sentence. This will be a total injustice.
I assume downloading an image of consenting adults indulging in S&M sex will be a criminal offence as it will considered "extreme". What about downloading a Robert Mapplethorpe image where two men are engaged in fisting, will that be a criminal offence?
There seems to be a hierarchy of "acceptable" sexual behaviour being created (good sex/bad sex). If you like looking at what the state considers obscene, kinky, sado-masochistic, violent and transgressive imagery then well, comrade, you're in trouble!
Where's the crime? Where's the victim? These images are based on fantasies. Sexual pleasure comes in all packages, and humans are sexual beings. New Labour sermonising us with trite, moralistic, "thou shalt not" commandments is utterly draconian and attacks the core of civil liberties. This coming from a bunch of hypocritical war-mongering liars!
It is easy to blame pornography for the actions of one man, as it abdicates responsibility. Porn supposedly drives men into a Pavlovian state and reduces them to basic impulses. I think humans are a lot more complex than that! Banning extreme porn will not magic away violence against women.
Single cases make bad law!
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Shooting the Messenger
The internet is a convenient scapegoat for society's ills.
The UK government is to legislate how best to imprison potentially many people for viewing content on the internet.
How should governments regulate the details of our personal lives and control individual expression ?
Preserve Individual Freedoms
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Whilst doing so we preserve hard won individual rights and liberties.
See no evil.
The government doesn't want you to view certain images. And will send you to prison if you possess them. Even in the privacy of your own home.